WASHINGTON: Authorities said that a sonic boom that echoed over Washington Sunday was caused by 2 fighter jets scrambling to intercept an unresponsive airplane that later crashed in Virginia, AFP reported.
People in the city reported hearing the thundering sound, which shook walls and rattled windows and caused social media to light up with residents asking what had occurred.
Jet fighters Chase Airplane in Washington
In a statement, the North American Aerospace Defense Command said that F-16 fighters “responded to an unresponsive Cessna 560 Citation V aircraft over Washington and Virginia,”.
The jets were scrambled from Joint Base Andrews, an official of the US Defense Department told AFP, and they followed the airplane that afterward crashed in southwest Virginia.
US President Joe Biden was also briefed on the matter, a White House official told the reporters, but did not specify whether any emergency safety measures were executed due to the incident. President Biden was also in the region Sunday, playing golf and spending time at the White House, before the dinner.
The unresponsive plane crashed in Virginia at around 1930 GMT, officials said. The North American Aerospace Defense Command said it had also tried to make contact with the pilot until the airplane crashed, intercepting plane at 3:20 pm. Media and press reported that the army did not shoot down the airplane. AFP reported that no information was immediately available regarding the pilot.
In a statement via twitter, the city’s Office of Emergency Management said that the sound “was caused by an authorized DOD flight.
